Eradicate unemployment and precariousness in Europe!

Eradicate unemployment and precariousness in Europe!

07 June 2006

17 million unemployed persons in Europe, 15 to 16 % of the population living below the poverty line (with peaks of 18 % in the United Kingdom or 21 % in Ireland, key countries of the application of the liberal receipts), explosion everywhere on the lack of job security (in Italy 70 % of jobs created in 2005 are precarious jobs!), and everywhere an offensive of the governments and the employers to reduce the social guarantees and " make the labour market more fluid "!

Text on labour of the EL working group on economic policy. Eradicate unemployment and precariousness in Europe! It is obviously not the fact of a coincidence, nor that of fatality but well that of the application of coordinated policies of breakage of achieved social rights, social dumping under pretext of wild globalization, the stake in work of the dogma of liberalism for whom the search for maximum profit rate does not have to know of obstacles, for whom the law of financial markets and the strategies of multinationals have force of law.

The liberal orientations of the Union and the decisions which ensue from it play an active role in the escalation of this situation:

dogma of the free and undistorted " competition " in front of restructurings, of relocations, of savages takeovers

diligent application of the orientations of the GATTS which symbolizes the even 'relooked' Bolkestein directive (which was collectively voted by the PPE and the great majority of the PSE group to the European parliament)

multiple directives of "liberalization" of public services

guidelines of the Lisbon treaty which recommend, among others, the " reform of the labour market " in each of the countries of the Union

role of the ECB which thwarts growth and employment for the benefit of the owners of capital

The European constitutional project, rejected by referendums in France and in the Netherlands represented the quintessence of these fatal orientations. Its refusal by the peoples, when they were consulted and informed, illustrates the depth of the opposition to the liberal lead screed which the dominant class wants to impose on our countries. This reality is also inscribed in the development of the social and political struggles of the period. The victory gained in France by young people and employees against the " First Employment Contract" which legalized the right to dismiss without motive makes echo for the protest which gets up in Spain against the new project of law aiming at facilitating the dismissals, for the massive strikes of the employees of the public services of Bade-Wurtemberg against the extension of the working time, or in that of the German metalworkers for pay rises in a context where the extension of the probationary period also appears in the contract of the CDU-SPD government, for the strike of the local public service in Great Britain against the recession of the age of retreat etc. In all our countries, the feeling that "that cannot continue anymore in this way" becomes a central data of the political life. Too often, it expresses itself in a vague way even recuperated by populist demagogies. It is not less present by this and, if we know how to express the potential of revolt and pursuit for true changes, it can become a decisive stand point to gather around objectives of radical transformation for human progress. Yes, to eradicate unemployment and precariousness is a realistic objective. It recovers obviously from a choice of society which is alternative to the dominion of capital, and to the liberal seizure of the fate of Europe and the world. We have to raise everywhere social objectives and policies of securisation of jobs and incomes thanks to a new role of training when it is necessary to have access to another chosen employment. We have to show that the means exist for a reform of this scale by putting in contribution the financial incomes of companies, restabilising in this way the cornering of the wealth operated for 20 years by the capital to the detriment of earned incomes. We have to gain, in this approach, rights and new powers for the employees and for the elected members to make companies socially and territorially responsible. These new powers have to be means to prevent the bleedings of employments inferred by social dumping, relocations, and financial reorganizations. They must be prolonged by an active policy of the European Union for an in depth reform of the rules and missions of the WTO, in favour of a cooperation of progress for all the regions of the world and not of a race to the least saying socially; for the only profit of multinationals and financial markets. In this battle, the Party of the European Left intends to play a driving role, to collect and make increase everywhere a movement of social and political struggles. It is in this spirit that it suggests organizing a conference on the fight for securisation of employment in Europe.